Xiao Chen

Beijing Normal University https://iam.bnu.edu.cn

One major barrier obstructing their scale engineered adoption of phase change materials (PCMs), currently, is their low thermal conductivity, which drastically constrains the power capacity. Our target is to enhance the PCMs thermal conductivity without evidently altering other thermal property criteria. Herein, we propose a facile, low-cost and co...

A novel type of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) based photoluminescence-functionalized (PL) phase change materials (PCMs) was designed and fabricated for superior thermal energy and fluorescence harvesting using a facile synthetic strategy for the first time, which expands conventional single thermal nature of PCMs with novel fluorescence function....

Submission deadline: 30 September 2024

DeCarbon: 热功能材料专刊 DeCarbon: Thermal Functional Materials 网址: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/decarbon 投稿截止日期：2024年9月10日

This special issue focuses on emerging application hotspots and pain points of thermal materials. It aims to present significant findings, breakthroughs, and insights into the synthesis, characterization, functionalization, and applications of next-generation thermal materials. Keywords: phase change materials, thermal conductive materials, therma...

High-temperature sensors are critical in petrochemical, aerospace, and automotive industries. However, the inorganic piezoelectric materials for high-temperature sensors are usually rigid and only can work in low temperatures due to their low Curie temperature (< 200 °C), which restricts these sensors for high-temperature application. Herein, we re...

Thermal storage technology based on phase change material (PCM) holds significant potential for temperature regulation and energy storage application. However, solid–liquid PCMs are often limited by leakage issues during phase changes and are not sufficiently functional to meet the demands of diverse applications. Fortunately, it has been recogn...

The practicality of conventional solid-liquid phase change materials (PCMs) is adversely restricted by liquid phase leakage, large volume expansion, shape instability, and severe corrosion in high-temperature thermal management systems. This highlight presents the latest development to resolve these challenges by designing ultrahigh-performance hig...

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) have demonstrated tremendous potential as a platform for achieving diverse functionalities in active and reconfigurable micro-nanophotonic devices across the electromagnetic spectrum, ranging from terahertz to visible frequencies. This comprehensive roadmap reviews the material and device aspects of PCMs, and their div...

The photothermal conversion capacity of pristine organic phase change materials (PCMs) is inherently insufficient in solar energy utilization. To upgrade their photothermal conversion capacity, we developed bimetallic zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) derived Co/N co‐doped flower‐like carbon (Co/N‐FLC)‐based composite PCMs toward solar energy ha...

2D MXene is highly preferred for photothermal energy conversion and microwave absorption. However, the aggregation issue, insufficient dielectric loss capacity, and lack of magnetic loss capacity for MXene severely hinder its practical applications. Herein, the authors propose multi-dimensional nanostructure engineering to electrostatically assembl...

Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/materials/special_issues/0T4543Y04B

In response to global energy scarcity, frontiers in multifunctional composite phase change materials (PCMs) with photo-/electro-/magnetothermal triggers show great potential in multiple energy utilization. However, most available composite PCM candidates are inadequate for multiple energy storage applications simultaneously. Herein, a green synthet...

Website: https://www.springeropen.com/collections/NEHS

The liquid leakage and weak solar absorption capacity of organic phase change materials (PCMs) seriously hinder the efficient utilization of solar energy and thermal energy storage. To address these issues, we prepared nanoporous metal organic framework (Ni-MOF) for the vacuum infiltration of paraffin wax (PW), followed by the coating of solar-abso...

Abstract Infiltrating phase change materials (PCMs) into nanoporous metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is accepted as a cutting‐edge thermal energy storage concept. However, weak photon capture capability of pristine MOF‐based composite PCMs is a stumbling block in solar energy utilization. Towards this goal, we prepared advanced high‐performance pris...

Functional phase change materials (PCMs) capable of reversibly storing and releasing tremendous thermal energy during the isothermal phase change process have recently received tremendous attention in interdisciplinary applications. The smart integration of PCMs with functional supporting materials enables multiple cutting-edge interdisciplinary ap...

Developing high-performance and low-cost electrocatalysts toward methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) is essential for fuel cell applications. Herein, we report a defect engineering strategy integrating amorphization and phosphorization to construct directly interconnected networks of amorphous NiCo-based metal-organic framework nanowires (a-NiCo-MOFN...

Wang et al. anchor Fe3O4 nanoparticles between the layers and the surface of 2D MXene for the infiltration of myristic acid for photothermal conversion and storage. Benefiting from the synergistic localized surface plasmon resonance effect of MXene and Fe3O4 nanoparticles, MXene@Fe3O4‐based composite PCMs harvest an ultrahigh photothermal conversio...

Abstract Extensive use of thermal energy in daily life is ideal for reducing carbon emissions to achieve carbon neutrality; however, the effective collection of thermal energy is a major hurdle. Thermoelectric (TE) conversion technology based on the Seebeck effect and thermal energy storage technology based on phase change materials (PCMs) represen...

Phase‐change materials are of great interest in solving mismatch between energy supply and demand. However, the vulnerability of solid–liquid phase‐change materials to leakage during the phase‐change process limits their development and application in practice. Herein, the enhancement of the shape stability of phase‐change materials is achieved thr...

With increasing global installation of photovoltaic panels and more complex functionalities of smart electronic devices, a fundamental problem in photovoltaic conversion and electronic device operation is massive heat generation, which severely reduces energy utilization efficiency and service life. Herein, we proposed a self-powered thermal manage...

The weak photon-capturing ability is a long-standing bottleneck for pristine metaleorganic framework (MOF)-based phase change materials (PCMs) in photothermal conversion and latent heat storage applications. Herein, we designed MOF-5-derived hierarchical nanoporous carbon/ZnO nanoparticle hybrid as dual efficient photonic harvester and molecular he...

Benefiting from the inherent properties of ultralight weight, ultrahigh porosity, ultrahigh specific surface area, adjustable thermal/electrical conductivities, and mechanical flexibility, aerogels are considered ideal supporting alternatives to efficiently encapsulate phase change materials (PCMs) and rationalize phase transformation behaviors. Th...

Benefiting from the light-capturing function of black surface and energy storage function of antifreeze proteins, antifreeze beetles are capable of surviving in extreme environments. Inspired by the smart thermal management system integrating photothermal conversion and thermal energy storage functions of antifreeze beetles, recently, Du et al. inf...

Abstract Inherent weak photon‐capturing ability is a long‐standing bottleneck for pristine phase change materials (PCMs) in photothermal conversion application. To conquer this difficulty, herein, magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles were in situ anchored between the layers and the surface of two‐dimensional MXene for the infiltration of myristic acid (MA)...

As a non-contact, real-time, accurate, and flexible control technique, the magnetic field has been widely utilized in a variety of applications, including industrial grab, robot drives, medical assistance, etc. However, non-magnetic phase change materials (PCMs) are difficult to manipulate with magnetic fields. Recently in Nature Communications, He...

Phase change material (PCM) as latent heat storage unit shows great potential in various scenes, including solar energy storage system and magnetically induced energy conversion and storage. But insufficient optical activity and electromagnetic response capability seriously hinder its wider applications. Herein, we reported an advanced high-perform...

Conventional phase change materials undergo reduced energy density and power density as transient melt front moves away from heat sources. In Nature Energy, Nenad Miljkovic et al. recently proposed an insightful pressure-enhanced close contact melting approach to realize spatial control of melt-front location of pristine phase change materials, the...

Efficient capture, conversion and storage of solar energy has been a long-term pursuit facing the green and low-carbon strategic goal. Nevertheless, fast-charging solar-thermal conversion and sustainable stable energy output are the key challenges in current solar-thermal energy storage systems. Herein, we rationally designed a sustainable stable a...

Liquid phase leakage, intrinsic rigidity and easy brittle failure are the long-standing bottlenecks of phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage, which seriously hinder their widespread applications in advanced energy-efficient systems. Emerging flexible composite PCMs that are capable of enduring certain deformation and guaranteeing...

Website: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/35441

The pursuit of high performance in specific conditions motivated the grand development of synthetic methodologies for single-atom catalysts (SACs) in various research fields. In general, the existing methods for SACs could be simply classified into two main types—“bottom-up” and “top-down”. The former was extensively explored and well documented el...

Benefiting from high thermal storage density, wide temperature regulation range, operational simplicity, and economic feasibility, latent heat-based thermal energy storage (TES) is comparatively accepted as a cutting-edge TES concept, especially solid-liquid phase change materials (PCMs). However, liquid phase leakage, low thermal/electrical conduc...

3D printing strategies provide flexible solutions for complex and programmable thermal management and versatile material integration. 3D-printed composite phase change materials (PCMs) can overcome shape limitations and optimize structures to construct complex object designs for effective thermal management. Recently in Matter, Emily B. Pentzer et...

Metal organic frameworks contain abundant empty space for selectively absorbing phase change materials (PCM) molecules and sometimes chemically transformed. However, the strong attractive interaction between metal organic frameworks and PCM severely blocks sufficient crystalline-amorphous state transition of PCM. Herein, we proposed an attractive i...

As a typical titanium based MOF, NH2-MIL-125(Ti) has been widely used as catalyst for photocatalytic CO2 reduction due to its abundant photoactive sites, large surface area and high porosity. However, the CO2 conversion efficiency of NH2-MIL-125(Ti) is still limited due to its weak electron transfer ability. Herein, Zn(II)-porphyrin is selected as...

Compared with pristine phase change materials (PCMs), nanopore-based composite PCMs generally have significant differences in thermophysical properties due to the nanoconfinement effect. However, experimental data are difficult to accurately reveal the microscopic molecular interaction mechanism between PCMs and nanoporous supporting materials. To...

Thermal energy storage technologies based on phase change materials (PCM) have been increasingly studied because of their superb regulation of thermal energy and their recent increases in efficient energy utilization. However, the low thermal conductivity of pure PCM immensely restricts their use in some applications such as the thermal management...

Phase change materials (PCMs) can alleviate concerns over energy to some extent by reversibly storing a tremendous amount of renewable and sustainable thermal energy. However, the low thermal conductivity, low electrical conductivity, and weak photoabsorption of pure PCMs hinder their wider applicability and development. To overcome these deficienc...

Phase change materials (PCMs) play a critical role in heat-related managements, however, are usually insulating and insensitive to temperature gradient which are not capable of providing sustainable thermal energy and restrict the real applications. Herein, a novel electric/photo to thermal response reduced [email protected] porous carbon ([email p...

Although nanoporous shape-stabilized composite phase change materials (PCMs) could efficiently address the leakage issue of pure PCMs during the solid-liquid phase transition process, numerous experiments have verified that the thermophysical parameters of the nanoporous shape-stabilized composite PCMs are significantly different from those of macr...

The development of highly efficient and low-cost bifunctional noble metal-free electrocatalysts for both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is an effective strategy for improving efficiency. Herein, novel threedimensional (3D) bimetallic metal−organic frameworks containing Ni and V with adjustable stoichiometr...

Phase change materials (PCMs) with excellent energy storage capacity and approximately constant temperature during the phase transition process can absorb and store thermal energy from their surroundings and release it when needed, thereby improving the energy utilization efficiency. However, thermal energy storage requires the temperature of PCMs...

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), composed of organic linkers and metal-containing nodes, are one of the most rapidly developing families of functional materials. The inherent features of MOFs, such as high specific surface area, porosity, structural diversity, and tunability, make them a versatile platform for a wide variety of interdisciplinary ap...

Hybridization of Metal-Organic frameworks (MOFs) with conductive materials has proven to be an efficient way to enhance their oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance. Here we present a novel primer-induced in situ hybridization method to covalently link the nickel-based two-dimensional (2D) ultrathin MOFs nanosheets and graphene. By considering...

Thermal energy harvesting technologies based on composite phase change materials (PCMs) are capable of harvesting tremendous amounts of thermal energy via isothermal phase transitions, thus showing enormous potential in the design of state-of-the-art renewable energy infrastructure. Great progress has been recently made in terms of enhancing the th...

Efficient thermal energy harvesting using phase change materials (PCMs) has great potential for thermal energy storage and thermal management applications. Benefiting from these merits of pore structure diversity, convenient controllability, and excellent thermophysical stability, SiO2-based composite PCMs have comparatively shown more promising pr...

Regulation of the electronic structure of metal oxo clusters in metal organic frameworks (MOFs) is a promising way to modulate charge transfer efficiency and photocatalytic performance. Herein, a series of Ni2+ doped NH2-MIL-125-Ti (NH2-MIL-125-Nix/Ti) with different Ni2+/Ti4+ molar ratio (x = 0.5%–1.5%) are prepared via an in-situ doping method. C...

Hierarchical nanostructure with hollow feature can greatly promote electrocatalytic activity by facilitating the diffusion of active species and accelerating the contact between catalyst and electrolyte. In this paper, we report the preparation of hierarchical hollow NiFe hydroxide nanospheres assembled from ultrathin nanosheets as the OER electroc...

Three-dimensional (3D) graphene-reinforced structural materials with excellent solar-thermal conversion, mechanical and thermal transfer properties present attractive prospects for the fabrication of high-performance composite phase change materials (PCMs). Herein, multifunctional 3D continuous sponge frameworks wrapping with reduced graphene oxide...

Efficient thermal energy storage technologies based on phase change materials (PCMs) that are capable of reversibly harvesting tremendous thermal energy during the isothermal phase transition have recently received unprecedented attention and are booming explosively in the exploitation of state-of-the-art multifunctional composite PCMs. In this reg...

Advanced functional electro-thermal conversion phase change materials (PCMs) can efficiently manage the energy conversion from electrical energy to thermal energy, thereby playing a significant role in sustainable energy utilization. Considering the inherent insulating properties of pristine PCMs, electrically conductive supporting materials are wi...

Electro‐thermal phase‐change materials (PCMs) enable continuous operation of heating‐related processes, which is urgently required for modern thermal‐management devices. Driven by the unmet needs to develop promising electro‐thermal PCMs with low operation voltage and high electro‐thermal storage efficiency simultaneously, unique ZIF@MOF‐derived ca...

Photocatalytic CO 2 reduction can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and convert CO 2 into value‐added chemical feedstocks and fuels. P25 is one of the most popular photocatalyst, but its high photoinduced charge recombination rate and low CO 2 adsorption ability hinder its application in photocatalytic CO 2 reduction due to the limited anatase/rutile...

Owing to the high abundance, good conductivity and excellent tolerance to harsh environment, carbon host materials have recently attracted considerable research interests in the fields of electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, the deficiency of intrinsic active sites within the carbon host materials substantially gives rise to...

In this study, shape-stabilized composite phase change materials were fabricated by the impregnation method based on dodecanoic acid (DA) as energy storage material and graphene as a supporting matrix. The supporting material was prepared via in-situ filling with Na2CO3 cores from solid sodium acetate and showed large specific surface area, high th...

Nanosheets with large exposed surface and high chemical activity are of paramount significance for catalysis, gas sensing and energy storage. However, assembling them into large-area free-standing films and preventing aggregation of individual nanosheets remain a great challenge. Herein, an efficient strategy is proposed to assemble defect-rich TiO...

Novel 3D self-supported porous NiO@NiMoO4 core-shell nanosheets are grown on nickel foam through a facile stepwise hydrothermal method. Ultrathin NiO nanosheets on the nickel foam cross-linked to each other are used as the core, and tiny NiMoO4 nanosheets are further engineered to be immobilized uniformly on the NiO nanosheets to form the shell. Th...

Electrochemical reduction of water to hydrogen holds great promise for clean energy, while its widespread application relies on the development of efficient catalysts with large surface area, abundant exposed active sites and superior electron conductivity. Herein, we report a facile strategy to configure an electrocatalyst composed of cobalt phosp...

Using phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage is an effective technique of energy management to address the mismatch problems between energy supply and demand. Shape-stabilized composite PCMs could efficiently solve their leakage problem during the solid-liquid phase change process, which have been widely used and extensively revie...

Phase change enthalpy and thermal conductivity are the two essential parameters for practical applications of shape-stabilized phase change materials (ss-PCMs). Herein, hierarchical 3-D reduced graphene-porous carbon support PCMs has been successfully synthesized by carbonizing graphene oxide@ metal organic frameworks (GO@MOFs) template, which simu...

Nanoconfinement behaviors of organic phase change materials (PCMs) in the nanoscale porous supports greatly influence the efficiency of thermal energy transformation and utilization when they undergo phase transition. To comprehensively elucidate the effects of nanoconfinement induced by the host-guest interactions on the thermal behaviors of organ...

Energy storage capacity and heat transfer ability are two important indexes for shape-stabilized phase change materials (ss-PCMs). In this paper, a core-sheath [email protected] was prepared via carbonation of [email protected], simultaneously 3D structural supports were obtained due to the porous carbon (PC) sheath stabilized the [email protected]...

The thermal failure mechanism of multilayer brittle TiN/CrAlN films at high annealing temperature has been investigated. Firstly, multilayer brittle TiN/CrAlN films (about 2.1 μm thick) were deposited on high speed steel by using metallic Ti and Al-Cr alloy (Al/Cr at% ratio=70:30) targets by RF-pulsed magnetron sputtering. Then, the multilayer TiN/...

Sandwich-structured TiN/CrAlN films were rationally designed using metallic Ti and Al-Cr alloy targets by RF-pulsed magnetron sputtering. After obtained films were annealed at diverse temperatures at atmospheric pressure for 1. h, the hardness reveals an apparent decrease evolution from 29.2 to 15.7. GPa and H/E* ratio declines below 0.1 with incre...